A gym junkie who was caught dealing ice and MDMA while on bail facing charges of dealing steroids has been sentenced to six years in jail.
With time already served and parole, Dylan Shaw, from Wyee on the New South Wales Central Coast, could next see freedom in late November 2022.
He is currently serving 18 months in jail for previous drugs charges. If he hadn’t offended again, he would have completed that sentence in just eight weeks’ time.
Dressed in a crumpled white Ralph Lauren shirt, Shaw said little but exchanged a few words with his girlfriend and family including his mother who had come to support him.
Shaw’s girlfriend Nateesha Jennifer Barlin, 25, a one-time topless waitress turned beautician who was previously convicted on drugs charges relating to his dealing, smiled broadly as proceedings began but the smile ebbed away as the sentence was imposed.
Wearing a peach jacket, deep blue leggings and diamante encrusted thongs and clutching a Balenciaga hand bag, Barlin managed to speak a few, sad final words in her lover’s direction.
As he was led away, she mouthed “I love you” to Shaw, who she had met through the gym.
At previous appearances, before he was behind bars, she has posted images of the two leaving court to her Instagram account.
Barlin had previously managed to only just avoid jail herself after a police operation recorded her bragging about drug deals while she was serving a sentence in the community.
Judge David Wilson said a “great and strong deterrent” had to be sent to the community
During his summing up at Gosford Courthouse on Wednesday, Judge Wilson referred to Shaw’s drug dealing as “unsophisticated” and noted that his fingerprints were found all over the packages filled with MDMA and ice.
Shaw was convicted on three charges, primarily two counts of supply prohibited drug, of MDMA and the hallucinogen 2CB, otherwise known as bromo, and knowingly deal with the proceeds of crime after police found $179,000 in his car.
A slew of further charges, including supplying cocaine and ice, were also taken into account.
“This offending was committed after the offender was charged for offences emanating from the importation of steroids. He was on bail for those offences while doing those offences,” said Judge Wilson.
The court heard how Shaw used Facebook pages and the Wickr encrypted app to do his drug trades, using the user name “Tony Rhino”.
During autumn 2018, Shaw was targeted by undercover cops who brought thousands of pills of MDMA and bromo. The cash and drugs would be exchanged at service stations or McDonald’s car parks.
When the undercover officer asked to buy ice, Shaw advised they deposit the cash in the Commonwealth Bank account of Barlin’s business Luxe Lashes.
Shaw would then send the drugs in light bulb boxes and Eclipse chewing gum tins enclosed in express post envelopes from post offices on the Central Coast to a PO Box in Willoughby, in Sydney’s north.
Police examined the packages and found Shaw’s fingerprints on the envelopes, bubble wrap, reusable bags and light bulb boxes.
UNSOPHISTICATED
Shaw was arrested in July 2018 outside a Belmore restaurant in southwest Sydney with police finding $179,000 in his car.
A subsequent search at his Wyee home uncovered a further $20,000 in cash, ice and cocaine. He had his bail revoked in November 2018.
“The dealing was unsophisticated. It was pretty much street level dealing,” said Judge Wilson.
“The purity of drugs was so low it raises question about how much control he had over the supply.
“(But) there plainly was a degree of planning and organisation by the offender.”
The Judge said he had been lenient with Shaw due to his history of drug abuse, including when he was a child, to self-medicate for anxiety issues and noted his drug use had “spiralled out of control” after the breakdown of a previous relationship.
Nonetheless, no other sentence than a custodial one was appropriate as a “great and stern deterrence was needed”.
“No doubt, his conduct was anti-social and destructive,” said Judge Wilson.
Shaw and Barlin were first arrested on November 6, 2016, after Australian Border Force officers raided their then home at Jilliby in the Central Coast hinterland. They found 3.7kg of steroids and human growth hormone.
In the previous six months, the ABF had intercepted 13,672 tablets, 11.2L of testosterone, 600ml of anabolic steroids and 20 vials of human growth hormone
Following that arrest, Shaw was convicted of eight counts of drug supply and knowingly deal with proceeds of crime while Barlin was charged with concealing a serious indictable offence.
In May, Shaw was given an 18-month sentence for those crimes with a non-parole period of seven months.
UGLY DUCKLING
Barlin pleaded guilty to one count of importing testosterone.
In June 2018, Barlin submitted an emotional affidavit to the court where she claimed to have been bullied as a child for being an “ugly duckling”, which had made her “obsessed with her appearance” later in life.
She said was no longer talking to the people that had been involved in the illicit drug trade and her business Luxe Lashes had put her back on the right path and given her the “clean break” she needed.
Judge Michael Bozic subsequently sentenced Barlin to serve her sentence as way of an intensive corrections order (ICO), an alternative to a full-time jail term where a person is able to serve their time in the community.
TEARS
But less than a month after Barlin tendered her affidavit, the Crown sent three police officers, working as undercover operatives into the Central Coast gym world.
In one recorded conversation from July 22, 2018, Barlin allegedly discussed her frustration at the police bust.
“It’s just annoying because what Dylan has got going on at the moment is really good. He’s moving about 2kg a week. We are making 50k a week … that’s what I mean we are making a lot of money,” she allegedly said.
She had boasted: “I pretty much supply the whole Central Coast”.
Barlin’s case returned to court in April 2019 where she started crying when Judge Bozic accused her of making “a complete and utter mockery of this sentencing exercise”, made “judges look like fools” and suggested his only option was to send her to jail.
In May, Barlin was sentenced to 14 months jail with a non-parole period of six months for hiding her boyfriend’s $50,000-a-week drug-dealing operation. But, In June that was cut on appeal to non-parole period of three months to be served as an ICO.
At a sentencing hearing earlier this month. Shaw said he began drinking, smoking cannabis and then taking steroids and amphetamines to overcome his social anxiety, the Central Coast Express Advocate reported.
Going to the gym helped fill a hole left by the breakdown in his first relationship.
Shaw then started a relationship with part time topless waitress and veterinary nurse Barlin, who said she has also become enthralled by the body building culture
Shaw told the court the pair began importing steroids and human growth hormones from China and the Philippines.
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